NFL Rebuilding Teams: Where Do the Jets Rank in 2026?

Somewhere in the midst of the Jets disastrous 2025 season, star cornerback Sauce Gardner found out he was suddenly a Colt, despite penning a $120m extension to remain part of the Green Machine just four months prior. Quinnen Williams left in the same November afternoon, dealt to Dallas for a 2026 second-rounder, a 2027 first-rounder, and Mazi Smith. Two former All-Pros, gone in an afternoon.

GM Darren Mougey stood in front of reporters and insisted this wasn’t a tear down. The roster, and a fan base that’s watched the Jets miss the playoffs for 15 straight years, even with four-time MVP Aaron Rodgers under center at one point, begged to differ. This was a franchise admitting what a 3-14 season with the league’s worst point differential and zero interceptions, from a head coach hired to fix the secondary, had been screaming since September.

Despite securing three first-round picks in the 2026 NFL Draft to kick start the rebuild, online betting sites remain unconvinced when it comes to the Jets’ hopes this season. The latest NFL betting at Bovada odds make the MetLife Stadium outfit a +725 outsider to end their playoff drought next season, the third-longest odds of anybody. But they aren’t the only side currently in the midst of a rebuild, so at least they’re in good company in the betting world.

Seven teams are officially in rebuild mode heading into the upcoming 2026 season. But where do the Jets rank among them? Let’s take a look.

1. Giants

Jim Harbaugh walked into the Giants building back in January and immediately brought with him five of his closest Baltimore staffers, star tight end Isaiah Likely included. The other residents of MetLife flipped the under performing Dexter Lawrence to the Bengals for the tenth overall pick, immediately using that to add tackle Francis Mauigoa to linebacker Arvell Reese, who was selected at number five.

Another former Raven, Daniel Faalele, has also arrived to protect Jaxson Dart the way Harbaugh’s Ravens always protected Lamar Jackson. Malik Nabers’ ACL recovery is the variable nobody wants to discuss out loud, but this remains a bet that Harbaugh’s fingerprints matter more than assets on a spreadsheet. The Giants will be targeting nine wins minimum next term, perhaps even securing a return to the playoffs after three straight misses.

2. Raiders

Ask a Raiders fan what Maxx Crosby meant to that locker room, and you’ll get a longer answer than the trade return deserves. He was the identity of a defense with nothing else to hang its hat on, and new GM John Spytek tried to trade him anyway for two first-round picks before the Ravens pulled out and decided to punt for Trey Hendrickson instead.

Klint Kubiak walked in after the Pete Carroll experiment became a disaster, with Geno Smith following his former Seahawks boss out of Sin City. In his place came not one but two quarterbacks; reigning Heisman-winning national champion Fernando Mendoza landed at No. 1 overall, with Kirk Cousins signed to bridge the gap. Ashton Jeanty and Brock Bowers give Mendoza weapons from day one, while the addition of superstar center Tyler Linderbaum could make all the difference.

3. Titans

Four coaches in three years looks like an organization that’s lost the plot. Mike Vrabel went in 2024, Brian Callahan lasted six games into 2025 before getting fired at 1-5, and team president Chad Brinker stepped down in April, handing Ryan Borgonzi full control. Mike Saleh walks into a building that’s forgotten stability, with Brian Daboll, fresh off stops at the Giants and Bills, calling plays for Cam Ward.

Ward has felt that instability in his body: 55 sacks as a rookie behind a line that couldn’t protect him. At least he now has highly-rated fourth overall wideout Carnell Tate as his primary target, while over $105 million in cap space for the coming campaigns is real ammunition.

4. Jets

Picture Jets GM Darren Mougey on the phone that Tuesday in November, making calls to Sauce Gardner and Quinnen Williams that he never wanted to make. This came on the back of the Aaron Rodgers disaster and a Justin Fields experiment that cratered by Week 11, alongside a defense that was supposed to be Aaron Glenn’s signature and instead couldn’t force a single interception all season.

Twelve of 22 assistants got fired. Fields went to Kansas City to back up Patrick Mahomes, with Geno Smith returning in his place. But here’s what separates this from Miami or Tennessee: David Bailey at No. 2 overall, five first-round picks stacked across 2026 and 2027, Kenyon Sadiq, Omar Cooper Jr. and D’Angelo Ponds already wearing green. That’s a real runway.

5. Cardinals

Releasing Kyler Murray wasn’t a football decision so much as a confession. Arizona owed him $230.5 million and ate $54.7 million in dead money to admit three years under Jonathan Gannon hadn’t worked — a -55 fourth-quarter point differential doesn’t lie about a team that couldn’t finish games.

Mike LaFleur inherits the wreckage from the Rams’ staff, with Jacoby Brissett holding the fort while Jeremiyah Love and Carson Beck find their footing. Trey McBride and Paris Johnson Jr. are the closest thing to stability, though Marvin Harrison Jr.’s stalled growth is its own quiet crisis. Four Wins in 2026 would be considered an achievement, which tells you exactly where this team finds itself right now.

6. Browns

Every Browns fan can recite the number, and none of them want to. The Deshaun Watson trade — $230 million fully guaranteed in 2022 — has calcified into the contract that haunts the fan base every offseason. He tore his Achilles in 2025. The deal got restructured a fifth time anyway, pushing 2026’s cap hit to $80.7 million with dead money bleeding into 2031.

Kevin Stefanski somehow survives it, running an open competition at quarterback between Shedeur Sanders, Dillon Gabriel, and the much-maligned, criminally overpaid Watson. Their one true superstar, Myles Garrett, has departed for the Lombardi favorite Rams, with 2024 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year Jared Verse, a 2027 1st-round pick, a 2028 2nd-round pick, and a 2029 3rd-round pick heading in the opposite direction. Rookie tackle Spencer Fano is one of the few building blocks fans point to without sighing. Real relief doesn’t arrive until 2027, when Watson is finally off the books.

7. Dolphins

Madden NFL 27 rated Miami’s roster a 74 overall — worst in the league by a distance — and it stung because it matched what everyone already suspected. Mike McDaniel got fired after 2025, Tua Tagovailoa’s tenure ending alongside him. Jim Hafley came over from Green Bay’s defense to lead a locker room built around Malik Willis, who finally gets the chance to prove himself as a genuine starting quarterback in the NFL. De’Von Achane is still special even in a lost season, and the retooled line of Kadyn Proctor, Austin Jackson, and Jonah Savaiinaea is the only real infrastructure Miami has. This is the longest road of anyone here.

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